György Lehel was born on 10 February 1926 in Budapest, Hungary, and studied conducting and composition under the teachings of private tutors in his hometown. At the age of twenty-four, he became a conductor with Hungarian Radio in Budapest. He was awarded the Liszt Prize in 1955. He conducted the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra seven years later, and was again awarded the Liszt Prize (1962). In 1972, he won the Kossuth Prize, and the Hungarian government named him an Artist of Merit in 1967. Lehel died in 1989 in Budapest.
